Let Them Swim Elsewhere!

Hoo boy. The optics are getting worse on Michelle Obama’s extremely conspicuous consumption spree on the Spanish coast. As in, now she’s having beaches cleared of people so her party can swim in peace, untroubled by the lesser folk:

Spanish police cleared off a stretch of beach at the Villa Padierna Hotel in Marbella after the Obamas had finished a busy day of sightseeing.

Police used palm trees and police tape to mark off the boundaries of a 100-yard expanse for the American delegation. On either side, onlookers gawked – and police occasionally stopped and searched sun lovers if they strayed too close to the private party.

It is unclear whether the police presence was paid for by Spain – or whether a nasty invoice could be landing in the lap of the American taxpayer.

The exact cost of the trip is unclear as Mrs Obama, 46, and her friends are footing personal expenses themselves – which is just as well.

There are a bunch of talking points embedded in this story that are doubtless coming from the White House. A lot about “private citizens” and “private money”.

But the Daily Mail estimates that this Antoinette Affair will cost American taxpayers something like £250,000. Which is about $397,000. (I need a bigger envelope, apparently.) That is not counting the “private” money in play here.

Figure that at least double that estimate of dollars is being thrown into the Spanish economy, probably triple of quadruple with the press expenditures for the media covering the spend-fest. Gee, I wonder why all the Spanish people in the pictures look so happy.

How many Americans would have benefited from the largess of the apparently super-rich Marie Obama and here equally well-heeled royal court?

The optics of this suck – really suck. The arrogance is astonishing.George Bush was excoriated by the left for taking vacations to his own ranch in Texas, where he cleared brush. The first lady has minions clear beaches at super-deluxe resorts for her pleasure.

Time to think about getting into recovery, America. We have had enough of this binge.

(Side note: I fully understand the need to have tight security for the first lady of the United States – my beef is not the clearing of a patch of beach. Even though the optics of that are rather bad, as well. My beef is for the rock-star, global jet-setter frittering away of our money on a lark for a “private citizen”.)